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As a stage expect to do the least complicated work, what they would call the B**H work. But keep your eyes open and learn at every opportunity. My best opinion is to get a stage at the best restaurant that will take you. Expect to work hard for little to no money for weeks. You probably won't get a job offer at a lot of high end places so early in your career but you will learn how to be a clean and efficient cook and you will probably see a lot more in a short period of time at one of these places than you ever will at a lower level restaurant.

I am currently a culinary student and I did an extended stage (externship) at COI in San Francisco. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I was there as a stage for a little over 5 months. I worked long hard hours that I will never forget. I opened the restaurant up at 7:30am or 8am every day and would usually finish my closing duties by 11pm. I did everything from pick seaweeds, juice citrus, make family meal, pick herbs, tend plant and pick our micro-green garden, peel fresh yuzu and make yuzu koshu and yuzu-panettone with our pastry chef, make beet roses, clean garbage cans, fold linens, forage with our chef de cuisine, scrub floors, and I was even a dishwasher for two nights and all of these things have made me a better person and cook. I went in with an open mind and expected to do grunt work and that is what I started doing, but I showed promise and by the end of the experience I was doing things that I never could have imagined.
The best advise I received on this stage was to write everything down. Write down ideas, recipes, methods, ingredient names, peoples names, each tool in the kitchen and a description, ideas on how to become faster, conversations that you have with people, write it all down no matter how inconsequential you think it is, WRITE IT DOWN. It shows you care and after a year or so when you want to remember how they made that killer dish you can look back at your notes and re-create it yourself.

I stage regularly with whichever restaurant does what I feel is a gap in my knowledge. For example, I'm heading down to a well known London restaurant that cooks only with wood fire, and last summer I went to the UKs best restaurant to suss out their extensive foraging system. It's the same way I buy books; be specific.

We get stage's every other day fresh from/still in school. I second everyone that's stressed technique. SO many high end kitchens cryovac everything and drop it into the circulator. While it's not a horrible way to turn out food, lots of new cooks depend on them too much. Classic technique will take you far. Monkeys can sous vide apples. It takes a cook to glacé those for service. Technique, technique, technique! Plus, in super high end kitchens like mine, the chef/owner (the one with all of the awards) rarely spends much time in the kitchen.

Staging at COI

Originally Posted by foodaholic

I am currently a culinary student and I did an extended stage (externship) at COI in San Francisco. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I was there as a stage for a little over 5 months. I worked long hard hours that I will never forget. I opened the restaurant up at 7:30am or 8am every day and would usually finish my closing duties by 11pm. I did everything from pick seaweeds, juice citrus, make family meal, pick herbs, tend plant and pick our micro-green garden, peel fresh yuzu and make yuzu koshu and yuzu-panettone with our pastry chef, make beet roses, clean garbage cans, fold linens, forage with our chef de cuisine, scrub floors, and I was even a dishwasher for two nights and all of these things have made me a better person and cook. I went in with an open mind and expected to do grunt work and that is what I started doing, but I showed promise and by the end of the experience I was doing things that I never could have imagined.
The best advise I received on this stage was to write everything down. Write down ideas, recipes, methods, ingredient names, peoples names, each tool in the kitchen and a description, ideas on how to become faster, conversations that you have with people, write it all down no matter how inconsequential you think it is, WRITE IT DOWN. It shows you care and after a year or so when you want to remember how they made that killer dish you can look back at your notes and re-create it yourself.

Hi Foodaholic,

I was wondering how you went about getting your stage at COI and what were the terms? If you could share I would really appreciate it. If you would rather keep this private my email is aarontekulve@gmail.com. Thank you! Aaron T